Saturday, March 28, 2009

Day 4, Week 4 in Wuhan, China



Waiting in the Rain . . . .




Map of Hankou JiangTan




His Car seems to have broken down.

Well, he seems to be managing well, despite the cold weather..




Its too cold, that you are able to see the exhaust of a vehicle.




What do you think this is?

Would you believe me, if i said Dustbin?




Sasireka in the rain (with an umbrella)



A Green Lion . . . .





Followed by a Gold Lion!



This young kid is rollerblading on a WET and RAINY DAY. Yet, he is able not to allow himself to fall.




Sasireika



A toilet in the Shopping District.

Apparently, there is no water supply to wash your hands...




Where did that hand come from??





Architecture seems to be more European like.


Is this s NEWS STATION or a SHOPPING CENTRE FOR APPAREL?


Buildings in the Shopping District






In Singapore, Jack's Place.........

In China, Jacks's Station.....



Buildings in the Shopping District





Buildings in the Shopping District




Why is a Motorbike, charging in the premises of a Fast Food Joint?



Is this a drinks stall, or shoestall





In Life ; ("Just Do It")




Buildings in the Shopping District



Building in the Shopping District (under construction)



Please don't disturb.......

I need to Concentrate......





Buildings in the Shopping District





What are they up tp?




Hwee Ping and Sasireika



Sebastian and Me



Did he fall on mud or something.....?




Buildings in the Shopping District




A quirky name....

An Angel?




Group Photo


Lecturer's and Guide's Photo
What We Did

This morning, we overslept to the extent that we almost ended up being late. Instead of waking up at 7.10am to shower and get ready, we ended up being awake only at 8am when we were to report at the Main Building. Sebastian and I had to rush to get prepared within 10 Minutes. My Ankle Problem only made things worse instead. I managed to pull myself to shower and get ready and pushed myself out of the Apartment by 8.10am. I told Sebastian that I shall walk first; I wouldn’t be able to run given my injury. I started to walk down the road fast and headed to the Main Gate. It started pouring on the way there; Thankfully, I was prepared by wearing my coat, which prevented from getting wet and feeling cold as well.

To my surprise, Sasireika, Hwee Ping and the others were waiting for the bus to arrive. Apparently, the bus driver mentioned that he would slightly late. I could have taken my time to walk slowly down, instead of running straining my ankle. Soon the rain started to increase and we stood under the umbrella of the Patrol Officer who seemed pretty oblivious to the crowd surrounding him. Soon the bus arrived and we boarded it to head to our 3 Destinations for the Day.

We were onboard the bus for about 2 hours when we arrived at our Destination. However, when we arrived at our destination, it was raining very heavily and it was very cold as well. We couldn’t go to the Beach Park as the weather was quite dangerous as well. After a short discussion between Mr. Ma, Mr. Chua and the Tour Guides, they changed the plan and told us to explore the Hankou Shopping District. We were given directions and were told to report at 12am via SMS and return at 3pm to leave for Campus.

Crossing the roads in Hankou is equally as chaotic as those in Wuchang, We had to run across in wet weather. We arrived safely on the other side safely and walked down to the shopping street. While walking down, we noticed that much of the buildings in the area are built in European Style. They were easily recognizable as Singapore Buildings also have some elements of European Architecture.

We walked down till we reached the main Shopping Street, the Jiang Han Lu Street. As it was raining heavily, since, it was a Two Way street with no road in between, we hopped from one shop to another to check out the goods and get some warmth from the cold weather as well. We entered many shops selling all the various branded goods. I noticed that the branded goods here can certainly be costly but they are not as expensive compared to prices in Singapore .One of them includes the Hang Ten.

In Singapore, usually the umbrellas can be allowed to be carried into the shop but it is courteous to have a plastic to cover the dripping umbrella. Here, wet umbrellas are allowed to be placed at the entrance of any shops, and some do even have buckets to keep the umbrella. Is certainly a unique approach, as most Singaporeans would not take a Plastic Bag for their Umbrella, leaving a trail of water wherever they go. The only major disadvantage of this approach is that there is a high possibility of your umbrella being stolen or missing. That was what happened to Sasireika Umbrella

Getting a shoe for myself was certainly hard given my feet size and foot condition. Whenever, we go into a shop, the first question we asked was whether they had the size of 45 and 46. That was the size of my foot as well as Sebastian’s foot too. Getting a shoe for us is like finding a needle in the haystack.

Since, time was running out, we decided to come back another day to visit the rest of the street. We decided to have our lunch at McDonalds, where I ordered a Saver Meal. When we entered the place and walked to our seat, we noticed a motorbike being plugged into a power outlet to charge. Usually, such facilities are placed outside of an eatery. Well, that was definitely something we don’t see every day

On the way back, we were followed by many who were trying to sell fake goods to us and wanted us to go to the back of the building to check their stock. These characters seem very dodgy indeed. One of them even tried to force the pamphlet into my hand to read as well. We were told by Mr. Chua and Mr. Ma that such people exists in Hankou District. Just walk straight and ignore them that were what we were told to do. We were also cautious of thieves and pickpockets as well. So, I placed all of my valuable belongings in my Jacket.

When we came back, many of our classmates were surprised at the amount of things we bought. After all, we didn’t buy much in the last few weeks as well. Well, I purchased a Nike Sling Bag, A Wallet and Belt Set from Cefiro and a T-Shirt from HangTen. The total bill came up to roughly 400 Yuan. We soon boarded the bus, after taking a Group Photo at the entrance of the Beach Park.

On the bus, a few of our classmates, asked about the ladies in Wuhan and what were they like. The female Tour Guide actually looked back to see who asked such a question. Since they asked, the male guide spoke about the women in the 3 areas: Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou. In Wuchang, he mentioned that we would usually find girls whom are very quiet in nature and more attractive. In Hanyang, the girls are average (based on the Tour Guide) and in Hankou, the women are very strict and have a fierce personality. Even guys are following their orders. I definitely don’t want to be in their shoes. That’s for sure. Finally the tour guide gave his closing speech as we came to end of the tour. They were was given a round of applause
Some of our friends dropped at the Yellow Crane Tower for shopping, but we decided to return back as we were pretty tired after walking and running in the rainy weather. We even slept on board the bus as well. We soon arrived at the University and alighted from the Bus. We took a picture with our Guides whom were with us, for the past 4 weekends. They really placed a lot of effort into putting up a good tour for us.

We went back to our hostel and did the washing of our clothes and stocktaking of gifts before leaving for Dinner and buying Bread for Breakfast the next Day. On the way back we, we dropped by the bookstore to look for a gift to Tom as we would be leaving soon. When we entered the book shop, every single one of them looked at us. Did we do anything wrong? We went to look for a Chinese-English Dictionary to prepare him for his Translator Examinations. We chose a good book for him, while Sebastian checked out the Games Section.

We came back for the briefing at Mr. Ma’s place. They pointed out all the academic matters to us as well as to prepare for our Final Test and Presentations too. We then headed back to the hostel to continue with our journals and retire for the night.

What We Think

People in China can be very direct at times, especially in China. While we were in the Bookshop, a Chinese Student came up to me and asks for my mobile number. That was the first Question he asked me. I was slightly baffled by his actions, but he eventually introduced himself as a Student from WUST, School of Information Engineering. We gave him my number and he gave his number to us as well. Many of the Students and Staff here are very curious to know more about us. They would ask questions on our country and its different aspects as well. The students are very down to earth and are trying their level best to communicate with us in English. Although once in a while, they converse in Chinese, their level of English is certainly commendable indeed, as they constantly improve themselves.


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Friday, March 27, 2009

Industrial Visit to the Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Company (YOFC) , Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

Off We Go...


Entrance of Facility...


Main Entrance....

Our Tour Guide....



Optical Fibres at Different Stages of Production



Mr. Chua translating for us in English.



The Tour Guide going through how the optical fibres
are produced.




An actual Glass Rod before being melted to form . . .


This! A roll of Optical Fibres.
One Roll such as this can allow for atleast 50 000km!


Optical Cables...

Different Types of Optical Fibres...

Different Types of Optical Fibres...


Rolls of Optical Fibres for Commercial Use...
Various Versions of Optical Fibres....
Group Photo of ECE Division and MDE Division


Sebastian and Me.

Sasireika and Hwee Ping

My Observations

The factory complex was pretty much modernized. Their location was not away from residential areas, it was actually close to them, as the plant produced minimal air pollution. Their Exhibition Centre was pretty spacious as well. Their information panels were written in English and Chinese allowing for better understanding for those whom lack the knowledge of the Mandarin Language. After all, this factory has ties with Draka Holdings in the Netherlands.
The business of Draka Holdings involves optical Fibres and cables, communication cables, broadband network construction and etc., which takes the lead in the world. In the field of communication wires and cables, Draka is the leader in Europe and ranks the first in China and third in North America.
YOFC is a high-tech company dedicated to the manufacturing, research and development of optical Fibre and cable products, which is the largest one in China.

YOFC has been ranked the first in China for the 17 years in a row. The total Fibre length is 69.5 million km and the cable length is 1.51 million sheath-km (with fibers of 44 million km) with the total sales of more than 25 billion RMB (as of 2008).

The products have been sold to more than 50 countries including USA, Japan, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and etc. Now YOFC has become the second largest fiber manufacturer and the fifth cable manufacturer in the world.

In the factories, they are a lot of cameras to ensure that no foul play is allowed. Photography was also prohibited. Major Industries in China don’t allow the secrets of the companies to be revealed to the public, due to security concerns.

We also had to be very quiet as we were observing a working environment. We were told to maintain minimal noise so as to not bother their work too much. They would also be distracted upon seeing large crowds coming along.

Some areas were also prohibited as well. Thus, we couldn’t view the entire process personally, but we were able to view them through the video. This provided us a greater insight on how the glass is used to produce optical fibres.

Comparisons between Singapore and China

Such Industries of smaller scale in Singapore are located in areas such as the TechnoPark. YOFC is based in a similar area in Wuhan known as East Lake Hi-tech Development Zone. There are a lot of such Small and Medium Industries (also known as SMEs) in Singapore. Many of them can be found in the area of East Lake Hi-tech Development Zone.

Both Singapore and China are very touchy when it comes to photography of its industries and surrounding areas. If I were to enter Jurong Island, I would not be able to take any audio and video recording, due to security reasons.

We had to be considerate for those working there as well. It was best to make minimal noise so as to avoid any form of disruption towards their concentration while working. This is a similar protocol to follow when visiting Singapore Factories as well.